Take Away Your Sadness
by Darcy Devereaux
Summary: A young woman joins the Order of the Phoenix and helps Sirius get through some tough times.


Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters don't belong to me! I'm just borrowing them and writing about them and not making any money off of it!

Author Note: This is my first ever fan fiction story. It takes place during the fifth book, but I don't know exactly when. Between when Harry goes off to school and Mr. Weasley gets attacked. I made up my own character, because I wanted to. I know a lot of people don't like reading stories with original characters, but they can go read something else because some people do like reading stories with original characters. I didn't go all the way to the end of the book in my story because that's too sad. I hope you like it!

Take Away Your Sadness

By: Darcy Devereaux

It was a dark and stormy night in London when Starr Delocroix stepped inside the parlor of 12 Grimmauld place. She pulled back her cloak, and ran a hand through her long silvery curls as she shook the rain off of her. She was cold and wet but she was here! 

She remembered being a little girl, and her father telling her all about the brave men and women who were fighting to keep them safe. She had wanted to be just like them, and had made her father tell her over and over again the latest news in the war.

She hated Voldemort more then anything. He was the reason she had grown up without a mother. Giselle Delocroix had been a ministry worker, murdered by death eaters when she discovered a spy amongst their midst. 

But that was long ago, and now Starr was eager to do her part in the new war against an old evil. She looked around the parlor, feeling shivers run up and down her spine. This place seemed so…evil. It was dark and musty, and smelled like old carpet and crypts. 

"Hello?" She called out, taking off her cloak and draping it over one arm. "Is anyone here?" Her father had told her that there would be other members of the Order of the Phoenix here, who would explain things to her and help her get settled.

"Don't yell!" Someone hissed from behind her. Starr turned, her sapphire blue eyes widening in surprise.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know…" She said, seeing the tall, black haired man standing behind her. He was staring at her with dark, haunted eyes. She wondered who he was.

"Well, just remember that." He told her, his voice deep and gruff.

"I will." She nodded solemnly. "I'm Starr. Starr Delocroix."

"I know." The man nodded, still staring at her. It was starting to make her uncomfortable. She fidgeted with the sleeve of her powder blue robes, and looked down at the floor.

"Er…my father said…"

"I know what your father said. Come to the kitchen, that's where everyone else is." The tall man led her down a flight of stairs-what an odd place to have a kitchen, down in the basement!-to a large room with a big table and a bunch of other people sitting around it and talking.

"You must be Starr." A very strange looking man with lots of scars and a funny eye stood up and looked at her. That had to be Mad-Eye Moody! She'd heard *so* many stories about him, and how brave he was. He was practically a legend!

"Yes. Yes I am." She said, nodding her head demurely.

"Heh. No one told us you 'ad veela in ya." He said, still looking her over. Starr flushed. She hated her part veela ancestry. No one took her seriously because of it. They just saw her as a pretty face, with nothing behind it. 

"Just a little bit…" She admitted, staring down at the floor. She felt so self conscious with everyone looking at her like that. 

"Well, that certainly doesn't matter here." A very kind looking man with lots of grey hair said, smiling at her.

"Not a bit, Remus!" Agreed a plump red haired woman. "Come on, sit down here and get warm! You'll catch a death of cold, look at you you're soaking wet!" The red haired woman got up and led Starr to a seat near the fire, pushing her down gently. "We'll get you something to eat…"

Everyone was being so nice to her. She felt much better, now that she was actually here. A plate of food was set down in front of her, and then it was time for introductions. The very nice plump woman was Mrs. Weasley, the kindly gray haired man was Remus Lupin-a real werewolf!-and there so many other people that Starr found it difficult to keep everyone straight. She was just so overwhelmed by it all.

But she knew she wouldn't forget the name of the man who had met her in the parlor. Sirius Black. He was supposed to have killed a lot of people, and he was the only person to ever escape from Azkaban. He was a legend, and everyone Starr knew was terrified of him. But no one had ever told her he was so handsome!

***

Over the weeks, Starr fit in easily into the Order. She did her part eagerly, happy to help whenever she was needed. She made friends with everyone easily, except for Sirius. He was very gruff, and he spent a lot of time upstairs in the house. He really only talked to Remus, who had quickly become one of Starr's closest friends. Sirius was very upset because he was stuck in the house all the time, and couldn't go outside in case someone saw him. 

But really, staying in the house wasn't that bad. There was so much that needed to be done! It was a real mess, and Starr did her part to help clean it up. But it was a very difficult job, and no matter how hard Starr and Mrs. Weasley worked, there always seemed to be something else to do.

She didn't mind though. Mrs. Weasley was becoming like a mother to her, she was so kind and maternal. Starr was grateful for it, and warmed up easily to the older woman. She couldn't believe she had seven children! But it sounded like she sort of adopted everyone else, and Starr was just another one of her strays.

Starr was trying to clean one of the old bedrooms. There were all sorts of boxes and chests just shoved away in it, and it was full of dust. She wondered if there was anything important in the boxes. They looked very, very old. Curious, she opened one. It was full of old jewelry! She'd never seen so much in her life, it was beautiful!

She couldn't help but look through it. It was mostly necklaces, heavy silver ones with beautiful gems. One was a large sapphire, the exact color of her eyes. It was almost as big as a galleon! She gasped when she saw it, lifting it reverently out of the box.

"What are you doing?"

Gasping, Starr dropped the necklace and whirled around, seeing Sirius standing in the doorway looking angry.

"I…I was cleaning the room…I didn't want to throw out anything that was important!" She exclaimed, her heart beating madly in her chest. "I found all this jewelry…"

"It was my mothers." Sirius told hr gruffly, walking into the room and picking the necklace up off the floor."

  
"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Starr felt awful. She hadn't meant to upset him.

"It's fine. She doesn't need it anymore." Sirius shrugged, looking down at the necklace. Starr swallowed hard, practically feeling the sadness that was radiating out of him. //He must be so lonely…//

Remus had told her all about Sirius' family, and how they had driven him to move out when he was only sixteen. They had been horrible people, really. And now he was stuck living in this house and he hardly ever saw his godson, and he was feeling useless. That must be awful, to feel so useless. Starr could never imagine feeling useless. But Sirius wasn't useless! He just had to be careful.

"It's very pretty…" Starr ventured, feeling like she had to say something.

"All of it was." Sirius said, with another shrug. "We were very rich."

"That must have been nice."

"For them." Sirius suddenly sounded angry again. He thrust the necklace roughly into her hands. "Here. Take it." He told her, and turned and left the room.

***

Starr didn't talk to Sirius for a long time after that. But she kept the necklace. He had given it to her, after all. And it was beautiful. She didn't tell anyone, not even Remus or Mrs. Weasley. She kept it in a box by her bed, so that it was safe.

She wished she could cheer Sirius up. It wasn't right that he should be so sad. She hated when people were sad. Even though there was a war going on and stuff, it didn't mean he had to be so sad. But she didn't know what to do. She tried to make friends with him, but he just ignored her. Or he was mean to her. 

Remus said she should just leave it be, that Sirius wasn't like other men and that he'd come around in his own time. But Starr didn't believe that. She knew that Sirius was the same as anyone else, and that he needed to be happy.

One day, she was down in the kitchen preparing dinner. Mrs. Weasley had something important she had to do, so Starr had offered to cook. She could cook very well, since she had cooked for her and her father all the time she was growing up. Sirius came into the kitchen.

"Where's Molly?" He asked, looking around.

"She had something important she had to do." Starr told him, looking up from her pot.

"Oh." Sirius didn't say anything else, but he sat down at the table. Starr felt a little uncomfortable, and didn't know what to say. //He really is handsome. He should smile, he would look even more handsome.// But Sirius never smiled, at least not when Starr could see him.

"Why don't you like me?" She asked, at the same time he asked 'Why Don't you wear that necklace I gave you?"

"Oh…I felt like I shouldn't." Starr said.

"I gave it to you." Sirius told her. "You should wear it."

"I will." She agreed. "Why don't you like me?"

"Who says I don't like you?" He asked.

"You don't act like you do."

"I like you."

"Oh."

No one said anything for a little while after that. Starr kept cooking, and Sirius just kept sitting at the table.

"It's hard for me." He finally said. "I was in Azkaban all those years. That leaves a mark on a man."

"I guess it would." Thirteen years was a long time to be trapped with dementors.

"I can't open up, the way I wish I could." Sirius went on. "It's not easy for me. I feel stuff, but I can't get it out."

"I understand." Starr nodded, putting a cover on the pot and sitting down next to Sirius so she could talk to him better. "That must be awful."

"it is." Sirius agree. That was probably why he was so mean all the time. "And I wish I could do more for the Order, but I have to stay here out of the way. I hate this house, it's full of bad memories."

"Don't think about those." Starr told him, putting a hand on his arm. "Think about all the good things that happen here now."

"I try, but it's so hard."

"It doesn't have to be." Starr said, her eyes wide and understanding. 

"How would you know?" Sirius asked. "You're beautiful and kind, and you probably had a perfect life."

"My life wasn't perfect." Starr told him, firmly. "My mother died when I was little, and I had to take care of my father. And we were poor, and I'm not even human!"

"Well, you're not some monster." Sirius said.

"No, but people don't think I'm anything other then a pretty face. They don't think I can do anything. That's why I like it here so much. Everyone likes me for me, not just because I'm part veela."

"Yeah." Sirius nodded. "I do like you." He then told her.

"You have a funny way of showing it." Starr told him back. "But I know it's because of Azkaban."

"Yeah." Sirius nodded. He looked up, and he looked into Starr's eyes and she could see how haunted and pained they were. Her heart went out to him, and she put her arms around him and kissed him deeply. She felt his arms wrap around her, and he was kissing her back and she swore he was crying…

Starr never worried that Sirius didn't like her again after that.

The End


End file.
